Valve Employee Proposes using Virtual Reality

[Humbug]

I personally don't understand VR...

I'd rather experience reality in REALITY.

Virtual stuff is just ridiculous in my opinion.

It's a different paradigm from looking at a monitor or a tv. When you look at a screen you are always looking through a window into a virtual world.

 

With a VR Head Mounted Display each eye is fed a different image and it covers your entire field of view. Each eye gets a different image and your brain resolves that into a 3 dimensional world around you. This is exactly what happens in real life when you walk through the world. So you are no longer looking through a window into a fictional world. You feel like you are inside that fictional world.

[ChineseChef]

-Nobody is designing from the ground up to make a VR experience that people want.- In reality this is not unlike the development of cinema: You should try to watch some of the classic films right after silent era stuff and see just how awkward those were: it was just basically people putting theater plays in front of a camera, and the actors and stories pretty much reflected this.-The kind of evolving games would need to take advantage of VR won't happen over night it will take years, decades even.  -snipped for brevity-

 

I agree with your premise, but disagree that it will take as long this time.  I also think that this time it may stick, but I could very well be wrong.

 

Some of the big problems of the past were cost and tech limits.  The cost was a problem both in making the new stuff, and being able to change and adapt the new ideas and tools.  If you can only afford 1 chance, you really need that chance to succeed.  Distribution and development times used to be a huge problem.  The internet has solved a lot of those problems.  Anyone anywhere can potentially make some software/game/demo and spread it across the world for near negligible cost.  Other people can build off of this and create amazing stuff.  And the cost is so low to enter and fail that you can try again and again with little real risk of total failure. 

 

The tech limits are also finally at a point where we can actually produce things that look "good enough".  For a long time, the tech as been not good enough, despite any story/design shortcomings.  It looked bad or didn't quite cut it, or was simply too cumbersome.  We now have headsets that will be small enough within a few years to be mildly annoying at worst.  We have computing power available to the regular consumer that can handle displaying pictures that are both high enough resolution and refresh rate.  I would not claim we have all we need, but we have actually achieved the minimum in my opinion.

 

TL:DR;  I think it is now cheap enough that changes can be made fast with significantly less risk of investment.  The internet allows for near free distribution, along with worldwide collaboration of ideas.  And the tech is finally at the "good enough" point where average consumers may be interested, and definitely enough for enthusiasts to actually do more then watch demos.

[Sauron]

I don't see the point in using it to propose, nor do I see it as something that could/should be used constantly in everyday life (augmentet reality on the other hand could be a thing if approached better than google glass did), honestly outside of videogames I see little use in VR.

[Trik'Stari]

I think Virtual reality is neat as an idea, but not very practical.

 

Give me the matrix DAMNIT. I WANT FULL IMMERSION

[Misanthrope]

I agree with your premise, but disagree that it will take as long this time.  I also think that this time it may stick, but I could very well be wrong.

 

Some of the big problems of the past were cost and tech limits.  The cost was a problem both in making the new stuff, and being able to change and adapt the new ideas and tools.  If you can only afford 1 chance, you really need that chance to succeed.  Distribution and development times used to be a huge problem.  The internet has solved a lot of those problems.  Anyone anywhere can potentially make some software/game/demo and spread it across the world for near negligible cost.  Other people can build off of this and create amazing stuff.  And the cost is so low to enter and fail that you can try again and again with little real risk of total failure. 

 

The tech limits are also finally at a point where we can actually produce things that look "good enough".  For a long time, the tech as been not good enough, despite any story/design shortcomings.  It looked bad or didn't quite cut it, or was simply too cumbersome.  We now have headsets that will be small enough within a few years to be mildly annoying at worst.  We have computing power available to the regular consumer that can handle displaying pictures that are both high enough resolution and refresh rate.  I would not claim we have all we need, but we have actually achieved the minimum in my opinion.

 

TL:DR;  I think it is now cheap enough that changes can be made fast with significantly less risk of investment.  The internet allows for near free distribution, along with worldwide collaboration of ideas.  And the tech is finally at the "good enough" point where average consumers may be interested, and definitely enough for enthusiasts to actually do more then watch demos.

 

I could be wrong about the timeframes sure. I just don't think the impact is as massive as going from no movies to having movies. That's like going from no electricity to electricity or no internet to internet. For what you say to happen quickly and decisively, it would need to be a massive impact, I just don't think this will. But this is a matter of opinion and subjective as I said I could be wrong.

[Master Disaster]

VR certainly has a place but VR Gaming still has one huge challenge to overcome, someone has to crack how to let players interact with the menu & ui without removing the headset, once that happens it will really take off.

For my money MSs SmartGlass is where the future of VR (AR in this case) lies in the mainstream market. Mark my words, that has the potential to change the world, in 100 years everyone will have a set and everything you can think of (outside taking a shit) will be relayed to us via AR. Shops with adverts tailored to the individual, schools with tailored lessons, your workplace, hospital, church, literally everywhere has something which can be added to AR headset.

[Snickerzz]

I personally don't understand VR...

I'd rather experience reality in REALITY.

Virtual stuff is just ridiculous in my opinion.

It's for those who can't experience reality things in reality. Like if a paralyzed person wanted to experience skydiving. or a inner city boy who wanted to ride a horse ;-;

[Venomz1337]

It's for those who can't experience reality things in reality. Like if a paralyzed person wanted to experience skydiving. or a inner city boy who wanted to ride a horse ;-;

 

But how you can experience something just through vision?

[Snickerzz]

But how you can experience something just through vision?

imagination does the rest

[Venomz1337]

imagination does the rest

 

True. 

[Humbug]

For my money MSs SmartGlass is where the future of VR (AR in this case) lies in the mainstream market. Mark my words, that has the potential to change the world, in 100 years everyone will have a set and everything you can think of (outside taking a shit) will be relayed to us via AR.

In 100 years (and much sooner) we would have moved past VR and HMDs. AR will be done in a different way via direct neural interfaces to our brains.

[Master Disaster]

In 100 years (and much sooner) we would have moved past VR and HMDs. AR will be done in a different way via direct neural interfaces to our brains.

No chance, we barely understand anything about the brain now so directly wiring up to it is waaaaaaaaaay beyond our understanding.

 

Much more likely is miniaturisation, they'll just shrink the device down to such a small footprint that you can have it implanted into your eye but even then I doubt it. Would you let someone wire directly into your brain? Implant a device into you? The whole thing screams government control and data collection fiasco.

 

I know for a fact I would want to be able to remove my device when I got home and I'm sure the same is true of most people.

[GoldSrc]

I personally don't understand VR...

I'd rather experience reality in REALITY.

Virtual stuff is just ridiculous in my opinion.

 

VR can give you what you can't and probably will never experience in real life.

You have no idea how easy it is to fool your brain just by replacing the input to your eyes.

 

I'm not buying a headset if i can just buy 144hz screen and buy shutter glasses instead for much cheaper, my neck already hurts a lot last thing i need is straping 1 kg roughly or bit less on my head to make my neck snap off.

 

Your head weights around 5kg (10-11 pounds), a headset that weights a few more grams or less than a pound is not going to make a big difference.

 

I'm concerned that if I use VR someone will mess with me while I have it on.

 

That's why you lock your door, people have messed with others while using just headsets, this will be just a little bit more "dangerous" but that's it, it's the same concept.

[Humbug]

No chance, we barely understand anything about the brain now so directly wiring up to it is waaaaaaaaaay beyond our understanding.

I'm only talking about sensory input.

e.g. hooking up something to our optic nerve in order to get enhanced vision and AR.

 

 

[Syntaxvgm]

marriage wont' last more than 2 years

[ConnorDahne]

VR gives me a migraine...
I've not tried the vive or anything past dk2, so this of course could've been addressed.

I'm hoping for actual games support, and hoping it won't end up being wii sports cheesy

[WolfDeville]

Venomz1337, on 05 Oct 2015 - 11:43 PM, said:

I personally don't understand VR...

I'd rather experience reality in REALITY.

Virtual stuff is just ridiculous in my opinion.

Now that is just stupid...

[GoldSrc]

Oh trust me you will if you wear it for long periods of time few grams it will come close towards a kg

That doesn't make sense, people wear headsets for long periods of time, yet the weight you feel does not increase at all.

[pbenologa]

I personally don't understand VR...

I'd rather experience reality in REALITY.

Virtual stuff is just ridiculous in my opinion.

You cant defy physics in the real world. 

[christianled59]

That doesn't make sense, people wear headsets for long periods of time, yet the weight you feel does not increase at all.

Its because of the balance. With a headset, it is on top of your head. Since a VR headset is in front of your face, it unbalances stuff and makes your neck strain more to hold your head up. Thats why some VR headsets actually have a counter weight in the back. 

[GoldSrc]

Its because of the balance. With a headset, it is on top of your head. Since a VR headset is in front of your face, it unbalances stuff and makes your neck strain more to hold your head up. Thats why some VR headsets actually have a counter weight in the back. 

Well, you just figured out a way to fix that problem, I know is not good to have all the weight on the front without something to balance it on the back.

[christianled59]

You even know what you are talking about ?

Having huge weight on top of your nose is more annoying then on your ears, your head just gets pulled down which means you have to counter balance it your self which just gives horrible neck pain over time, why you think normal glasses are made to be light weight and not heavy ? you even know what you are talking about ?

 

See my reply to him.

[GoldSrc]

You even know what you are talking about ?

Having huge weight on top of your nose is more annoying then on your ears, your head just gets pulled down which means you have to counter balance it your self which just gives horrible neck pain over time, why you think normal glasses are made to be light weight and not heavy ? you even know what you are talking about ?

 

 

You really think engineers are not that smart to have figured that out by now?

[GoldSrc]

Adding weight on the back really does't change much, all you can do is make it as light as possible can only imagine this with oled display tech as thin as possible like flexiable VR glasses that are slightly bigger then normal glasses with all the hardware on the ear cups for the headphones for example, that will be a couple of years still tech is out there already though.

Well, then it's obvious that they have to make it as light as possible, something they must be already working on by now.

[RagnarokDel]

I have zero interest in gluing one of those large headsets to my face.

the firsts cellphones were bulky too.